We moderns are supposed to yearn for liberty and independence, yet we owe our very being to others. Our lives began through others’ actions and we only survived infancy because people let us. Even as adults, we are at the mercy of the water-company to send us something that won’t kill us, the baker not to sell us poisoned loaves. Many of us owe our current existence to western standards of hygiene and medicine. In just an instant, something inside us could snap or burst and we would lose all faculties. Self-c0nfidence and pride aren’t just socially rude but rationally flawed.
And then there’s God. He didn’t just assemble all the universe’s components, spark them into life and walk away disinterestedly. He holds creation in being from moment to moment and intervenes in human history in ways we can and cannot fathom. Water boils at 373.15°K, not because Lord Kelvin saw it did, but because God ordains it shall (or not if He so chooses).
Forget all supposed disproofs of God on the sides of buses and ask yourself just how the bus got there. Claim your rights, hold your head high, be your own man or woman and then, after a few hours of independence, tell me you don’t fancy a cup of tea or a pint.
Acknowledging our creaturehood doesn’t mean we permanently cringe (though non-theatrical prostration before the tabernacle is good for the soul). Such confidence as we have can come from our knowing the God exists (duh!) and that He knows we do too. Instead of captains of our immortal souls, however, we are their vice-presidents – a heartbeat away from the shattering of that benign screen which, for now, keeps us from seeing true reality; God in the face.
